[Solved] Is this a known bug with the comment function?

[Michelle_7728]

I love Open Office, and it's all I use at home. I've used it for years, but it seems to me that a few years ago I could easily make the comment field wider by just clicking in it and expanding the box by dragging it to the size I wanted (like you do in Excel). The last couple of years that is not so (at least with my installation of it)...instead I seemed to be limited by 16 characters if using font Ariel size 10, much less characters if I use a larger font.

Anyhow I use the comment feature a lot, and It's really inconvenient to be limited to this small size, even though the vertical size of the comment continues to grow the more rows of information I add to the comment.

So today I decided to upgrade Open Office to the latest version (I was on 4.0.1, and now I'm on 4.1.5) to see if this issue goes away, and at first glance the issue was still there.

However, I found I CAN now force wider comments, but what a pain! I have to right-click on the cell multiple times...not in a row of course...let me give an example:
- first right-click: Choose "insert comment". Add all of the comment text I wish, then click on a different cell in the sheet to get out of the comment box (I don't have the option to resize the comment in this step)
- Right-click on the cell again. SOMETIMES (rarely) it gives me a sub menu where I can choose to check "Show comment"....but usually I get the following menu:
.......... spellcheck
...........add
...........ignore all
...........word is english (USA)
...........Paragraph is english (USA)

It's like it didn't want to deselect the cell the first time. I can try clicking in several different cells, then come back to that original cell and right-click, and get the above menu again. However, I've found if I click around to other cells and back, trying multiple times, sooner or later I'll get the menu where I can put the check mark by "Show Comment" (or remove the check mark from "Show Comment")....but what a hassle...it just took me about 45 seconds, clicking in a bunch of different cells (and back and forth on cells in different sheets) before this cell finally let me get in to uncheck the "Show Comment"!

I only want the comment visible when I edit it, or hover over it with my mouse, but I don't know of any other way to be able to get in to widen it.

I've not had any issues with right-clicking or left-clicking in any other application, and indeed it usually works just fine in Open Office, until I want to widen a comment field.

Has anyone else heard of this issue? ....or is there a System setting I can change to widen the default sized comment field so I don't have to continuously fight with it to do that?

[MrProgrammer]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

a few years ago I could easily make the comment field wider by just clicking in it and expanding the box by dragging it to the size I wanted

If I've enabled Show Comment, I can expand the box by dragging it to a new size using OpenOffice 3.2 on Mac OS X.

I found I CAN now force wider comments, but what a pain! I have to …

All I need to do is select the cell with the comment and use Insert → Comment, which lets me edit the comment or the box size, even if Show Comment is turned off.

is there a System setting I can change to widen the default sized comment field so I don't have to continuously fight with it to do that?

I doubt that setting exists, except by editing the source code and recompiling OpenOffice. I am not a developer and have no ides where such a change would be made.

Has anyone else heard of this issue?

There are plenty of issues related to comments (which are also referred to as "notes"). I've read anough of them over the years to have decided that using comments in Calc is a bad idea. I never use them. If I want to store comments in a cell, I'll use a formula, generally one of the following. I use the first format if I want to date the comment. The second format is only suitable if the cell's value is a constant.

=IF(DATE(yyyy;mm;dd);CellValue;CellComment)      Example: =IF(DATE(2018;2;10);0.19;"2018 tax rate")
={CellValue;CellComment}                         Example: ={0.19;"2018 tax rate"}

I can appreciate if you've used a lot of comments in your spreadsheets that you don't want to convert them. So I'll offer four suggestions:
• Standard advice when OpenOffice behaves strangely is to reset the user profile.
• Convert comments to formulas only as needed, say when you want to change them. There's no need to do them all at once.
• You could try LibreOffice to see if comments are handled better there. You can run LibreOffice without uninstalling OpenOffice.
• Use Excel, if it better meets your needs.

If this solved your problem please go to your first post use the Edit button and add [Solved] to the start of the title. You can select the green checkmark icon at the same time.

[Tutorial] Ten concepts that every Calc user should know

[jrkrideau]

If I've enabled Show Comment

I see the problem the OP is talking about but I cannot even find Show Comment to enable it.

I never use comments either but I see where they could be valuable for collaborative work.

[RoryOF]

Right click on a spreadsheet cell containing a comment (red dot in top right) and select Show comment from the popup.

[jrkrideau]

Thanks. Resizing seems fine now.

This may be the first time ever that I have inserted a comment in a spreadsheet.